Mr Beckett, who also teaches English and drama at Hutt Valley High School, will talk about science at a breakfast function in Dunedin at 7.30am tomorrow, as part of the New Zealand International Science Festival.
New Zealand needed its next generation of scientists as much as it required a new crop of doctors and teachers, he said.
Another festival participant, US biochemist Dr Jilly Evans, suggested in yesterday's Otago Daily Times New Zealand needed a permanent workforce of scientists, saying young scientists face too much insecurity arising from the need to seek short-term grants.
Mr Beckett agreed a permanent workforce was needed.
He commented on what he saw as the negative stereotyping of science and said the value and influence of "everyday science" was underestimated by some people.
However, science was sometimes also dangerously overestimated and scientists in their white coats should not be mistaken for a new form of all-knowing priests, he said in an interview.
A key problem involved confusing the concepts of science and story, he said.
Science was about modelling data used to predict results, while stories were the interpretation and meaning people derived from the results.
Science provided the raw material for the debate over global warming, but decisions about how nations responded to the problems went beyond science and took into account political, social and economic systems.
Science and humanities - the latter including ethics and aesthetics - needed to work together, including within universities.
"There's a lot to be said for knowing both," he added.
People can book to attend tomorrow's "Breakfast with Bernard Beckett" at the Scotia Restaurant and Whisky Bar, through the festival Internet site: www.scifest.org.nz
